Decorative panels that can be painted or finished for aesthetic purposes are utilized in various industries for innumerable products. Many conventional home appliances, for example, have a number of external surfaces that are visible after installation which can consist of a decorative panel. Specifically, dishwashers, trash compactors, stoves, and most other kitchen appliance can have a decorative front surface.
It is often desired that the decorative surface provide a “finished metallic look”. In addition to home appliances, decorative surfaces with a “finished metallic look” may be used for decorative metal faced building panels, metal faced sectional water tanks, and metal faced components for the automotive industry. However, the use of certain monolithic metal substrates to provide the desired “finished metallic look” for the decorative surface may be limited due to the high cost of the metallic materials—e.g., titanium, stainless steel, nickel, copper, and other expensive metal sheet stock.
Some prior art attempts have been made to mitigate the costs of using certain monolithic metal substrates to provide a “finished metallic look” for decorative surfaces. One proposal is to reduce the thickness or gauge of the monolithic panel and, thus, the total volume of material being used. However, reducing the thickness of the monolithic metal substrate may eventually reduce its robustness (e.g., reducing structural or surface integrity), and may eliminate certain post processing operations, such as brushing, polishing, embossing, or other decorative finishes imparted by mechanical means, due to minimal thickness requirements.
Another proposal has been to use electroplating, electrodeposition, and other similar processes to coat a substrate of lesser expensive metal with a film of the more expensive and more aesthetically appealing metallic material. Unfortunately, the electroplated surface will read through (or telegraph) the appearance of the substrate surface to which it is coating. Moreover, the extremely thin layers produced by electroplating have a limited life expectancy, are expensive to produce, and are prone to damage under certain post processing operations.
It has also been proposed to “metalize” a surface of a polymeric panel to create the desired “finished metallic look” for a decorative surface. However, the peel strength of the metal-film polymer laminate is often insufficient for many processing and post-processing operations and, thus, the metal-film layer is susceptible to delamination. That is, the mechanical stresses generated when first forming the metal on the polymeric substrate and in subsequent processing steps can cause the metal-film to distort or flex, which may cause the metal to bubble on and/or peel away from the substrate. Film laminates also do not have the same chemical resistance or scratch resistance, and cannot be repaired the same as solid metal when scratching, staining, etc., occurs.